Press Review

Deputy parliament speaker Samvel Nikoyan, who heads the ad hoc parliamentary commission conducting a probe into last year’s post-election unrest, tells “Hayots Ashkhar” that in the near future he will invite the attention of the commission to the fact that a minor spent the night together with opposition protesters in Theater Square on February 29, 2008, the night before the dispersal of the ten-day protests by security forces.

“There is ample evidence in this regard. It is also proved that the organizers and leaders of the protests as well as protesters themselves had reliable information about a planned action by police to clear the square from protesters in the morning. A natural question arises – and the commission must address it – why did the opposition leaders allow the girl to spend the night with protesters who were preparing for resistance to police in the morning?”

“168 Zham” assesses the latest statistical data released by the National Statistical Service and says that the macroeconomic economic statistics should have been a cold shower for the public as Armenia’s economy has contracted by 16.3 percent in the first six months of this year.

“But the public would not show any strong reaction to that, since people mainly do not care about official figures and judge about the economy by their own living standards. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Tigran Sarkisian stated yesterday that the illicit commodity turnover on the domestic market has decreased by 16 percent this year – in a surprise coincidence nearly as much as the economy contracted.”

“Aravot” asks pro-government Prosperous Armenia party parliamentary faction secretary Aram Safarian to comment on the fact that the so-called Madrid principles of Karabakh settlement that he praised only last week are being updated now and are said to be subject to serious changes.

The MP says that unlike various international governmental and non-governmental organizations and Azerbaijani website that have periodically disclosed the contents of the so-called Madrid principles – and did so using unreliable and incomplete information, the Armenian side has never done so since 2007.

“And when the three countries’ presidents stated about agreed principles between the presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan, they began to say that only six out of 14 or 16 Madrid principles have now been agreed. After the presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan continued negotiations and the number of points did not increase, they began to say that provisions being agreed since 2007 are being subject to change in the negotiating process. Therefore, I think, our diplomats need to be enabled to continue constructive negotiations.”

“Haykakan Zhamanak” writes on the bank robbery in Yerevan that happened on Wednesday in which unknown assailants robbed a VTB Bank affiliate in Yerevan of an equivalent of roughly $13,700: “This is news for Armenia, since never before have robbers entered a bank in broad daylight and stolen money from there. What happened is the direct result of the activities of police in the past year and a half. The Armenian police are currently preoccupied with only one problem – getting skilled in beating opposition protesters. No doubt, criminals will feel free in these conditions. Who knows what other outrageous crimes we might witness soon?”